Contact: Jack Cook, CLU, ChFC, RHU,President, Cook and KocherInsurance Group,jackc@cookandkocher.comAssociation management in this eco-nomic climate strives to provide as muchvalue to members as possible. In doingso, organizations take on more liability.It is critical to know how to protect yourboard of directors as well as your balancesheet. Three types of coverage becomemore necessary as a more diverse offer-ing of services are provided to your mem-bership.

Accreditation and certification programsoffer integral value to many organiza-tions. Many times, it is these desig-nations that drive the value that anorganization provides the public and itsmembers. In a risk management review,have your organization ask itself whetheror not it:• Sets and develops standards• Publishes technical materials• Performs consulting services• Offers certification and accreditation• Administers continuing education pro-gramsIf your organization offers any of theseto its membership, then an errors andomissions insurance policy is a criticalcomponent of your organization’s riskmanagement program.

Media Liability Insurance CoverageMore organizations want their websitesto not only inform members and the pub-audits or primarily on corporateaudits?

lic, but also provide learning, reference
materials and expert opinions. Areas
such as libel, copyright, plagiarism, trademark can be covered with a broad media
liability insurance policy.

Cyber Liability/Data Breach Insurance
Coverage

The newest coverage to arise in concert
with professional liability insurance is
cyber liability/data breach coverage.
Associations are collecting and holding more data for others. Whether it is
data that is intellectual property or it is
data that contains credit card and bank
account information, the exposure to
your organization can be extreme.

Financial and operations areas of your
organization can use the protections that
these insurance policies provide. In fact,
it is precisely these types of insurance
policies that your organization should
integrate into a larger risk management
program to protect its balance sheet.

• What forms of board support do they
provide? Will they present the financial
statements and audit findings to the
board?

• What kind of management support do
they provide? Will they charge you for
all calls, meet with you outside the
audit, help you in other areas of need?

• What is their employee turnover
record? Do their people move on to
other areas of the firm or is there a
career path within their nonprofit practice area? What do their references say?

The bottom line is you often get what
you pay for. If your nonprofit’s viewpoint
is to hire the cheapest auditor you can
find, don’t be surprised with the level of
service you get. Don’t short change your
organization and its stakeholders.